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Pricing on a USA Real Estate Site

Posted: Mon Nov 16, 2009 7:22 am
by volomike
What do you think about the pricing I plan to do on a custom USA real estate site in PHP? I'm thinking it will be $3500 USD. It will have features like the following (on the right column in the link below):

http://www.alamode.com/agent/comparison

But these will be the differences:

- the design cost (PSD image work) and client discussions (organizing their needs, etc.) will be a separate cost
- made in WordPress and will look similar to AgentPress, but be custom so that I can take it in different directions
- unlimited property listings
- unlimited property listing categories
- the uploaded images on each listing will automatically animate (using jQuery) upon viewing a listing and clicking the main image, as well as have a way to click one photo link to see one photo at a time via a list of photos beneath. The animation will be interesting in that it pans each image left to right/right to left (alternating) inside a restricted viewport rectangle, and then fades between images, thanks to jQuery.
- 1 custom theme WP theme that I build and which integrates with the Pods Plugin
- no pre-written pages for mortgage content
- English only
- no mortgage calculators (well, I might be talked into creating at least one)
- no other advertising on the site unless you edit a text field to paste it in
- no online loan apps -- just a contact form that's copied over as an "apply online" form that emails one single realtor
- no Flash, no Flash intro
- no CRM features
- none of the lead capture features as specified in the lead capture section
- no integration with IDX
- no Microsoft Bing aerial photos
- no import from Top Producer
- no audio
- no property brochures
- no videos
- tech support is minimalist and only lasts 20 days past closing date on the project -- must have a tech support contract for further support
- No Inman news feed
- No mobile notifications (quite possible as an add-on, but a separate cost)
- However, will have MLS integration on record posting, and will be updated twice daily via cron job with updated MLS information through an API
- visitor signups for email alerts about all listings in a particular category, or one listing, and can come back to tailor the frequency and other options on those alerts, as well as turn them off or set certain hours of the day or days when those alerts are not sent
- Will utilize JCrop for image cropping and resizing

I guess that's really hard to visualize what I'm saying. Just think it's more like AgentPress, but has MLS integration. I wasn't planning on using AgentPress -- just duplicating its features conceptually using Pods + WP, and then integrating some MLS stuff, as well as JCrop image cropping and resizing.

By the way, I'm having trouble believing that the A La Mode pricing is accurate. It just seems to me to be too good to be true, like there are hidden costs somewhere. For instance, the mobile stuff in the cost looks to me to have a per-message cost, but this is not mentioned on the site. As well, I read a couple complaints about them like bad tech support and someone claiming they had to pay an additional $500 extra for tech support. And I don't know if the fees I'm seeing on the A La Mode are like "introductory offers" that cost more in following years, or if they say the pricing is only for those who sign up on a 5 year plan.

Re: Pricing on a USA Real Estate Site

Posted: Mon Nov 16, 2009 11:15 am
by josh
Sure, do it cheap and make them agree to let you turn it into your own product, compete with that company. Your users will finance adding all those little fine details later on, at which time you can make them available at a discount to the original company that had you create the system. For the cost they charge yearly, sell them a flat out license with 1yr of tech support (it will average out over all your clients)

Thats what I'd do. Looks like a half a million dollar a year business, easy. (if resold). Plus if you make it for resell you will tend to try harder for clean, portable code

Re: Pricing on a USA Real Estate Site

Posted: Mon Nov 16, 2009 8:08 pm
by volomike
Oh yeah. Hahaha. The odds of me even remotely becoming a millionaire or half-millionaire are slim to none. That kind of luck doesn't run my way. It happens to other people I know, not me. All I do is work, sleep, pay bills, work, sleep, pay bills, ....

Re: Pricing on a USA Real Estate Site

Posted: Mon Nov 16, 2009 9:02 pm
by josh
It doesnt take luck, it takes hard work, a few decent ideas, and willing to solve peoples problems. I'll put it this way, if you don't want to do it, I'd gladly take on the project and let you mark it up, if I kept the resell rights.